Gold for swimmer Quah Zheng Wen

SINGAPORE – It was a busy day for the Republic’s youth athletes at the Nanjing Asian Youth Games today (Aug 19), with the teenagers bagging one gold, two silver and one bronze medal in swimming, fencing and shooting. Day one of action in the swimming pool kicked off today, with Quah Zheng Wen bagging Singapore’s first gold in the boys’ 200m butterfly. Up against stiff competition in the 200 butterfly final, 16-year-old Zheng Wen – who is also Team Singapore’s flag-bearer for the AYG – powered home to claim gold in a time of 1 minute 59.98 seconds, just 0.03 seconds ahead of Korea’s Jung Jaeyoun (2:00.01), while Thailand’s Kittiya Tanakrit won the bronze in 2:02.06. In the girls’ 4x100m freestyle relay final, Singapore’s quartet of Samantha Yeo, Rachel Marjorie Tseng, Hoong En Qi, and Marina Chan clocked a time of 3 minutes 54.67 seconds – setting a new under-17 national record by bettering the time of 3 minutes 56.55 seconds set in last year's ASEAN Schools Games – to win the silver medal, just behind the South Korean quartet who claimed the top spot in 3:53.28, while Thailand were third in 3:54.71 seconds. Singapore’s Sean Tay also fired his way to silver in the men’s 10-metre air rifle final, surviving an elimination-style shootout to face China’s Wang Yuefeng in the final two. But Yuefeng prevailed in the end, claiming gold in 208.7 points ahead of Sean's 205.6. Thailand's Panyatong Pongsaton was third with a score of 184.2. Over in men’s sabre (individual), fencer Choy Yu Yong was tied for bronze with China’s Zhang Qian after a 15-11 semi-final loss to China’s Xu Qiancheng. To date, Team Singapore have won one bronze, two silver and two bronze medals at the Youth Games. The second edition of the multi-sports youth event ends on Aug 24.